Review of Episode 6: Solo
11/10/05
Rachel: "I'm gonna put on my strappy shoes and my
teeny dress, and I'm gonna try."
This one was fun. I laughed a lot. It had a sort of "Buffy"-like
zing to the dialogue. (Yes, I know it was written by Jeffrey
Bell.)
I hadn't even given a thought to Rachel's family, but of
course they would in danger from Gordon Dean. Rachel appears
to have had a good childhood with a normal, loving family,
which seriously contrasts with Sydney growing up caught between
James Bond and the agents of SMERSH.
In fact, Rachel is growing on me. The whole oil rig platform
scene was great. Yes, she was terrified, but she got into
it, didn't she? And Amy Acker was back, and she got to be
all psycho killer, which was very cool. We even had a third
kick-ass woman: Renee Rienne was in the episode only for about
a minute, but she was once again Wonder Woman Super Spy. It's
like Renee is half of Sydney, and Rachel is the other half.
Maybe that's what the producers had in mind.
Sloane is now established as Jack's assistant director. Is
Sloane attempting to string Dean along by giving him info
that won't hurt APO? I wonder if Jack knows about all this,
and if he and Sloane are working out the best way to handle
the situation? No, that's not possible. Jack wouldn't let
Gordon Dean keep operating if he knew where the guy was. Or
would he? When Sloane told Sydney he had something to confess
to her, I thought he was going to spill the beans... but no.
He did tell her, though, that he would do whatever it took
to save Nadia. Was he trying to hint at it, maybe?
My favorite scene was probably Dixon's ploy at the Chinese
Consulate party. "Ours! Is a forbidden love!" And
we had some reminders of the dearly departed Vaughn for a
change, with Sydney in the store watching a guy who looked
like Vaughn with the little girl, and her listening to that
old tape at the end with the recorder aimed at the baby. (Okay,
Alias fans -- was that from an early episode? If you know,
write to me! billiecats@hotmail.com.)
And finally, Mia Maestro is back! Yes, only for a moment,
but they wouldn't have shown her face in that hospital bed
if we weren't getting a Nadia appearance in the near future.
So yay.
Bits and pieces:
-- The Rachel/Tom "sparring" scene was very cute,
and only a little predictable. "I don't really... spar."
-- The actors who played Rachel's family looked a lot like
her. Or did it seem that way just because they were all blonde?
-- I loved the spring-loaded ice pick. Sorta like a hairbrush
switchblade.
-- Marshall mentioned the sporking incident from last season's
wonderful episode, "Tuesday."
-- Is Sloane still wearing a wedding ring? That could just
be Ron Rifkin's, but I like the idea that Sloane might still
be wearing Emily's ring.
-- Rachel: "We're a kind of weird family. We actually
like each other." Weird for "Alias," anyway.
-- Marshall: "Only she could turn pregnancy into an
alias."
-- Marshall also said, "Great. We're five by five."
Was that a little Buffy shout-out?
-- Sydney: "This is going to be too easy, Rachel."
:)
-- Rachel: "My god, you're..." Peyton: "Not
dead?" Rachel: "I was going to say evil." Now,
see, that sounded Buffy-like. Didn't it?
-- This week's itinerary: Marseilles, Bombay, South China
Sea.
-- This week's language skills: Sydney did Chinese.
-- This week's hot look: Rachel in her red-headed hooker
wear, although Sydney in the gorgeous green Indian maternity
dress and jewelry was also cool.
Three out of four spies,
Billie
- Review by Billie Doux
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